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Watson in doubt for Sydney Test
December 27, 2012
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Shane Watson is in doubt for the Sydney Test after suffering yet another injury while bowling.
Watson hurt his left calf - the same muscle that caused him problems earlier in the summer and ruled him out of the first two Tests against South Africa - while bowling against Sri Lanka at the MCG on Boxing Day.
The problem did not prevent Watson from batting on the second day and he was able to score 83 in an innings that lasted more than four hours but Cricket Australia revealed his injury late on Thursday night.
"He was able to get though the batting innings today and is likely to field on day three," team physio Alex Kountouris said. "Whether he bowls in the second innings will be determined closer to the bowling innings. A decision on his availability for the New Year Test will be made after the completion of the current match."
Watson has had an injury-plagued year, missing the whole of the last Australian Test summer due to hamstring and calf problems, before being ruled out of the Brisbane and Adelaide Tests this season after injuring his left calf while bowling in a Sheffield Shield match. As he recovered from that problem, he retained his determination to remain an allrounder and said he would not consider giving up bowling "unless something goes very horribly wrong".
During Australia's victory against Sri Lanka in Hobart this month he bowled 47.4 overs, easily the most he has ever sent down in a Test, as he helped cover for Ben Hilfenhaus, who broke down during the game.
In the lead-up to the Boxing Day Test, Watson said his body had recovered well from the workload and he was looking forward to contributing more with the ball in future.
"My body has pulled up really well so far from the amount of bowling," Watson said in Melbourne on Sunday, three days before the Test began. "To be able to get through that many overs is something that I've been thinking about for the last six months, and more so dreaming to be honest, to be able to contribute to an Australian Test bowling side of things with that amount of overs.
"I've pulled up really well from it. I always wished I was able to contribute some time when the team needed it. Unfortunately for Ben Hilfenhaus he went down injured but it meant that it gave me an opportunity to see if my body could handle that sort of thing and so far it has."
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here
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Brydon Coverdale
Assistant Editor Possibly the only person to win a headline-writing award for a title with the word "heifers" in it, Brydon decided agricultural journalism wasn't for him when he took up his position with ESPNcricinfo in Melbourne. His cricketing career peaked with an unbeaten 85 in the seconds for a small team in rural Victoria on a day when they could not scrounge up 11 players and Brydon, tragically, ran out of partners to help him reach his century. He is also a compulsive TV game-show contestant and has appeared on half a dozen shows in Australia.
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This is really tragic, just when Watson's got some match practice under his belt and played out a decent innings. If he's not capable of bowling in time for Sydney, the selectors have to play him as a dedicated batsman, as he needs it. He can make a big impact in India if he's treated right, and I daresay that should mean that he be rested from a few of the meaningless one-dayers and T20s, and the Champion's League later on as well if possible. Phil Hughes can slot into the one day and T20 side as an opener easily enough.
For Sydney they should leave Watson out and include Starc, batting Johnson at 7 and Starc at 8. Of more concern are the two Ashes series and also the four-Test tour of India. Khawaja has to come into calculations and maybe Doolan can be given a spot in the squad. An in form spinner would be handy, Smith should be encouraged to work on his leg-spin and Warne should be brought back in a coaching role only.
As for cover, it again boils down to the two who should have been coming in months ago - Bailey vs Christian. If they want an all-rounder, they should pick Christian, but if they want a batsman then Bailey is your man. Of course, they may go for Khawaja as the bat and, on a spin-friendly wicket, Glenn Maxwell may get the nod. Steve Smith is in pretty good form too, so could be in contention. I feel sorry for Watson but he just gets injured too often. They could also turn Mitchell Johnson into an all-rounder and use Johnson up the order with another fast bowler in the team?
I'm surprised by the incoherence of John Inverarity's thinking about Shane Watson.
If he is batting at number 4, the focus needs to be on his batting. So why, when he was returning from a calf injury, was he made to bowl 47.4 overs at Hobart to cover for Hilfenhaus breaking down? In a game in which the number 10 batsman-cum-offspinner only bowled 57 overs?
I can't imagine Jacques Kallis being given such a high workload upon his return from injury.
Watson is a perfectly good all-rounder, but he is a Clive Rice / late-career Ian Botham style BATTING all-rounder. A poor-man's Jacques Kallis, but there is no shame in that.
He needs to have his bowling workload capped at 8-10 overs per day, regardless of injuries around him.
But a batsman who can bowl 10 overs per day of high-quality fast-medium is not to be sniffed at. Every country in the world would want such a player in the top six of their batting line-up, for the flexibility it offers.
OK so its often scoffed at to say it wasn't like this in my day. BUT it may well be true with cricket. The number of fast bowlers breaking down ( particularly in AUS it seems) seems to be breaking all records. The only bowler of any class who i remember breaking down so often in ENG was Chris Old, and Brearley questioned whether most of that was in his head ! Looking back. Trueman, Statham, McKenzie, Davidson, Snow, Akram, Kapil, Hadlee, Imran, not to mention all the great WI fast bowlers never seemed to break down much. McGrath likewise in more recent years. Is it something to do with not enough cricket and too much gym work ? Seriously needs to be addressed. There is a difference between fit and bowling fit, I suspect.
I completely agree with inefekt.. Dear Shane, please make the long overdue decision to lighten your bowling workload and concentrate on your batting. Move back to the openers position (we need an excuse to get rid of Cowan) and insist that you bowl no more than 5 to 10 overs per day. If a bowler gets injured mid match then all bowlers share workload. I'm from india.. and i'm a huge fan of watson's batting. but he's being played by a villain kid clarke. i was a huge fan of dominant AUS when mcgrath, gilly, steve, ricky were there. but now cricket AUS is a joke to me. captained by a immatured kid clarke(no man). WATSON is the only dominant man in aus n looks n behaves n bats like a true aussie. what a dominant figure in a team full of kids. cunning kid(boy, no man)clarke scared of losing his captaincy is playing cheap tricks like moving watson down to no.4 and making him overbowl n purposely trying to injure him.
Posted by inefekt on (December 29, 2012, 1:29 GMT)Dear Shane, please make the long overdue decision to lighten your bowling workload and concentrate on your batting. Move back to the openers position (we need an excuse to get rid of Cowan) and insist that you bowl no more than 5 to 10 overs per day. If a bowler gets injured mid match then you can take over that bowlers workload, but only under those circumstances. Thank you.
Posted by Mary_786 on (December 28, 2012, 5:58 GMT)Get Khawaja in for Watson, he is ready. Khawaja will do fine if selected. The selectionn panel has done a good job and will reward Khawaja. If Khawaja gets a go in the upcoming test then people can witness first hand how good his fielding and running between the wickets is now. Boof has improved this aspects in his game and rest can see for themselves.
Posted by Vishnu27 on (December 28, 2012, 5:52 GMT)Yeah, that's right RednWhiteArmy, Australia are the only team in the world suffering injuries. Oh, hang on a sec, that's right, didn't England in India just have to continually shuffle their own injury riddled decks? Seriously, we aren't all as misinformed as you'd like to think. Running scared already? Bit early for that. Just imagine what'll happen if you don't wrap Jimmy up in cotton wool & mothballs between now & the next two Ashes series. 10-nil is what.
Posted by hycIass on (December 28, 2012, 5:29 GMT)@158not out and RandyOz are correct about Khawaja, he will be the correct replacement for Watson.. Watson has to be careful that he does not play in a dead rubber when he is not required and get himself right for the Indian series . If Khawaja does play then look for an improvement in his fielding as much as his batting. We know he has scored them in testing conditions, but more importantly he has been keeping the scoreboard ticking over as much with his running as his shot-making which was something the selectors asked him for in their "to do" list i.e rotating the strike. For the bowling Starc has to come back in but for who because Johnson did well, i am guessing they will rest Siddle but he is our best bowler.